The Greenhill Park Disaster

THE GREEN HILL PARK DISASTER

By John Stanton *

*John Stanton was the unions’ lawyer in the Commission of Inquiry into the explosion.

(excerpted from The Northern Mariner - Volume 1, Number 1 - January 1991, reprinted with permission)

******

Early in 1945 explosions and fire ravaged the S.S. Green Hill Park in Vancouver harbour, killing two seamen and six longshoremen instantly. Ironically, this ship of death had been named after a peaceful picnic ground at Alma, a village in central Nova Scotia. Ottawa promptly appointed three former maritime men as a Commission of Inquiry. As a result of the disaster, the International Longshoremen's and Warehouse-

men's Union (ILWU) Local 501 and the Canadian Seamen's Union (CSU) catapulted into public prominence as they helped to expose lax ship-loading and port management practices.

A mile from the scene, the sturdy building in which I worked shook from a powerful initial rumbling, followed by two strong shocks and then a lesser one. Smoke rose over rooftops from the direction of Canadian Pacific's wharves. Emergency vehicles roared by, responding to a general alarm. The media quickly reported that a ship had blown up and was burning fiercely as tugboatmen struggled to tow her away from the docks. Unknown numbers were dead or injured. Thousands of downtown windows were shattered, and flying glass slashed many on the busy streets.

During World War II, Canada had built nearly four hundred merchant vessels at public expense, including the Green Hill Park. Completed in November 1943, the ship belonged to the Park Steamship Company Limited, a corporation wholly-

owned by the federal government. Park's general manager was Vancouver shipping magnate Ernest Farquhar Riddle. He was also owner and director of Canada Shipping Company Limited, based in British Columbia. The other owners and directors were Sherwood Lett, a lawyer (later a chief justice), and D.E. Harris, a grain broker. Acting as Park's general manager, COVER: Don Coltman photo, Vancouver Archives, 586-3565

Riddle gave Canada Shipping (i.e., himself) a contract to operate, manage and control the Green Hill Park. The actual job was entrusted to businessman Kenneth Montgomery, who hired Empire Stevedoring Company to load the vessel. The longshoremen were its employees. The seamen worked for the Park Company.

Image e-03973, courtesy Royal BC Museum and Archives

The ship, which began loading cargo for Australia on February 27 at Canadian Pacific Pier B, a hundred metres from major downtown buildings, was divided into six compartments, five for cargo and one for the boilers and engines. Each had a lower compartment (hold) some thirty feet deep and an upper one only eight feet deep called the "'tween decks." No. 3 hold was amidships, under the bridge and forward of the engines; it measured about fifty feet square. The

explosions occurred in the 'tween decks of No. 3, near the starboard side of the ship and away from the pier. The bulkhead (a steel wall) separating No. 3 from No. 2 was tom out, killing five longshoremen who were still in No. 2 and one man trying to escape from No. 1. The two seamen perished in a cabin above the site of the explosions.

Months earlier, the Australian government had begun acquiring items of cargo for shipment on the Green Hill Park and sent a detailed list to Canada Shipping. Lumber, newsprint and tin plate comprised the great bulk, but there were also

Image courtesy Chris Madsen.

many other goods, among which three should have attracted special attention: ninety-four tonnes of sodium chlorate, lesser amounts of overproof whisky, and distress flares.

The sodium chlorate and the whisky were particularly dangerous. Charles Hazen, a chemist, insisted the chlorate was not responsible for the explosions. G.S. Eldridge, a chemical engineer, declared that it seldom caught fire. These men were witnesses for Canada Shipping and the ship's officers. Minimizing the importance of the chemical was in their interest. The commission reported that it was "not impressed with ... Eldridge and still less with Hazen. These two gentlemen ... were wedded to their own views and were less than convincing."

The commission did accept evidence by three other scientists, including chemistry professor MJ. Marshall, who explained

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that sodium chlorate is "similar to gunpowder in effect and does damage at a distance out of proportion to that at the scene." This is why downtown buildings shook and windows broke.

Theories about the cause of the fire were suggested by some witnesses: sabotage, an incendiary bomb, spontaneous ignition, and friction. These were rejected on the spot. As for a cigarette, there was much evidence. The employers spoke of the

difficulty in getting men to stop smoking. Union witness George Sickavish, who barely escaped from the Green Hill Park with his life, told of a recent union meeting deciding that anyone who smoked in a ship's hold would be fined a hundred dollars and lose his job. Percy Cavanagh, working on deck, had

The Province newspaper, Vancouver Public Library 45866

a good view into much of No. 3 'tween decks and was "completely satisfied in [his] own mind that no one smoked in the 'tween decks the day of the explosion or the day before... many of the men below came up on deck to smoke."

Hardly had echoes of the explosion died away when many tugboats were on their way to the Green Hill Park, as was the city's fire department. The professional efficiency of the firemen and tugboatmen was a refreshing change from the bungling of Montgomery, Galt, Wright and the others. Fire engines poured water onto the ship from every available vantage point and rescued the men who had jumped or been blown overboard, including Herbert Mayhew, who was found in a safety net. They also assisted an officer whose clothing was on fire. The work went on despite the bursting flares, which, as one newspaper wrote, "continued to pour into the sky at intervals."

The small harbour tug Charles H. Cates No. 5 was first at the scene; her captain, Douglas Dixon, recalls a blazing barge of lumber being towed away with difficulty, while other tugs set to work with hoses. Dixon, near the Green Hill Park's stern, saw other tugs hauling away a sister ship to facilitate removal of the burning vessel.

Nine workers, aboard the Green Hill Park to check her engines, took refuge with crew members at the stern of the ship, the area least affected. There they assisted Dixon, now joined by the tugs Kyuquot and RFM, to fix towlines. At the same time the naval tug Glendevon arrived, despite warnings to stay away because more explosions were feared. The Glendevon came alongside several times to rescue men who escaped by sliding down ropes. Once in safety, they were asked to volunteer to return aboard the Green Hill Park to help the tugs get her out of the harbour. First Officer Horsfield, Third Officer Stuart S. McKenzie, and crewman Clarence Wallace went back, and from the stern of the ship did what they could. They reported the deck "unbearably hot" a scant twenty feet from their station.

With towlines in place, the dangerous and difficult process of towing the ship began. The tugboatmen did their job, never

knowing if more explosions would occur, for cargoes in Nos. 2 and 3 still blazed fiercely. At first it was thought that the ship could be beached on mud flats across the harbour. On the way, however, the vessel seemed to disdain the idea, turning a complete circle. The tugs were having a very awkward time hauling the ship from the stern. The bow was becoming ever lighter, and there was no way of steering from there because of the fire. So the ship kept yawing wildly. Naval officers decided that instead of beaching, she must be taken out into English Bay (the outer harbour) and scuttled. The Green Hill Park herself decided otherwise.

The tugs fought their way to Calamity Point in the First Narrows, where the ship again turned full circle and beached herself on the gravel. After much struggle, they succeeded in pulling the Green Hill Park into deep water. Passing under the Lion's Gate bridge, the ship was a spectacular sight for those

Image courtesy Chris Madsen

looking down. Fighting strong eddies and currents, the tugs pulled her along the south shore, where she finally beached herself on the rocks. The tugs could do no more for the Green Hill Park; but Vancouver's fireboat, J.H. Carlisle, had now arrived and began pumping sea water onto fires that still raged. Captain Dixon says that pressure from the nozzles kept pushing the fireboat away from the ship, so he used his tug to keep them together.

Horsfield, McKenzie and Wallace were taken off by a police boat a couple of hours later, but even after many more hours of intense firefighting no one could get below to begin the task of locating and removing the bodies. That was done the next day. Later the ship was towed to a pier in the harbour. Plans were made to salvage the boilers and engines and to put the hull up for sale as a breakwater.

Nothing like this had ever happened before on the British Columbia coast, and public reaction was swift. The mayor and the Attorney-

General made immediate demands on the federal government for a full and open enquiry. They wanted no part of what one client of mine called "a heavy veil of secrecy" that he feared from shipping and harbour officials. The unions began collecting evidence from witnesses, and the media, normally indifferent or hostile to union activity, gave good coverage to a number of highly pertinent questions.

From a number of witnesses, I found out everything I could about the Green Hill Park: her cargo, the method of stowage, and about some men's attempts to fight the fire

“I was disappointed

that fault was

attached to

longshoremen for

broaching liquor, with

no attempt to put the

finding within its real

context. ...”

and then escape. Two longshoremen described how it felt to be trapped aboard, facing what they believed to be certain death. The slipshod way some companies and government agencies (to say nothing of the Port Warden of Vancouver) treated their responsibility for the safety of ships, cargoes and men, became increasingly apparent to me.

I was disappointed that fault was attached to longshoremen for broaching liquor, with no attempt to put the finding within its real context. This fed the prejudice against waterfront workers in those circles where longshoremen are seen as thieves, thugs, or worse. It is a cultivated prejudice that lingers on and enables employers to drag out union negotiations and Parliament to enact laws taking away normal collective bargaining rights, as was done in 1972, 1975, and 1982. Nonetheless, participation in the inquiry by Local 501 united the membership around serious issues of safety and strengthened the union through an increased public awareness of the realities of waterfront work.

SOURCES

Dixon, Captain Doug. "Interview," June 23, 1981.

Lloyd's Register of Shipping (1944-1970).

Province of British Columbia. Registrar of Companies. "Canada Shipping Company Limited, 1928 to 1974."

"Report of the Inquiry Commission," May, 1945.

Stanton, John. "Personal files."

Statements to union counsel by seventeen longshoremen who witnessed most of the events.

Longshoremen

Name Age Place of

Birth Status Children

Place of

Death

Cause of

Death

Donald

G. Bell 34 B.C. married 3

No. 2

lower

hold

4th de-

gree

burns of

entire

body

Joseph A.

Brooks 51 N.B. married 3 -do-

complete

burning

(4th de-

gree)

William

T. Lewis 46 Wales married 0

top of

ladder

No. 1

hold

4th de-

gree

burns

(entire

body)

Merton

McGrath 46 N.S. widower

No. 2

lower

hold

charring

of body

by burns

Monta-

gue E.

Munn

57 P.E.I. married 2 -do-

burning

(4th de-

gree)

Walter

Peterson 56 N.B. married 0 -do-

charring

of body

by burns

Seamen

Julius

Kern

abo

ut

41

unknown single 0

chief

steward's

cabin

4th de-

gree

bums of

body

Donald

Munn 54 Scotland single 0 -do-

burning

(4th de-

gree)

Personal Data, Places and Causes of Death

of Eight Men Killed Aboard S.S. Green Hill Park, Vancouver Harbour, March 6, 1945

Note: All causes of death also include asphyxiation.

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